Brian Ashton has added four players to the contracted national squad of 35 for the first of the weekly training sessions near Dublin Airport next Wednesday. The quartet are Conor McGuinness, Dylan O'Grady, Richie Wallace and Mark McCall.

In the case of McGuinness, and that of his Connacht half-back partner Eric Elwood, permission to attend the session has been readily granted by coach Warren Gatland, despite Connacht being based in France for the week. They will return there on Thursday to resume preparations for Connacht's second of back-toback European Conference games against French opposition, namely Begles-Bordeaux.

As a benchmark for the remainder of the season, the session will begin at 10.30am, break for lunch and continue for a couple of hours in the afternoon.